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We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
I’m crossing the ocean today on a raft.
Theo’s dyslexic on The Cosby Show
as I eat kelp from the pigeonless, flopping waves.
Mercy’s fast as a pectoral slab and endurance presumes me.
Dots all over the place.
I’m crossing the ocean today on a raft.
I’ve imposed food-sanctions until the swabs
resume working: passive mutiny’s born a full-grown
Yosemite Sam, the endpoint of negative capability.
Coffee drips into the agar roar.
I’m crossing the ocean today on a raft.
A tiger-shark jumps into my breakfast
lobster-bisque. It’s ruined! The sun’s
my dad, wind pronounces my skin.
Like Merle Haggard, the highway’s my home.
I’m crossing the ocean today on a raft.
Dawn, bales of chicken-wire, the Statue of Liberty,
vine-veined fence, charcoal, water lapping softly.
It’s scary to think that I’ll be there by morning.
The sky’s blue, the water’s blue.
I’m crossing the ocean today on a raft.
Another island another gas-meter,
I land a whale the raft can’t hold.
Ambergris’s just blubber without capital.
God, if you have immunity, blow.
Greg Weiss is a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of Southern Mississippi and editor of Intentional Walk.
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